Four-time Major winner Ernie Els arrived in Dubai for this week’s DP World Tour Championship having spent last Friday rubbing shoulders with the mighty South African Springboks rugby side.

Following the WGC – HSBC Champions Els flew home to Florida for a few days rest before heading to London for a long weekend at Wentworth.

And as he said on his website ……….

The highlight of this particular visit was meeting up with the Springboks rugby team. It’s always a pleasure to spend time with the guys and as you can imagine it was a real honour to be asked to hand out those iconic green-and-gold jerseys during a pre-match training session at Twickenham on Friday lunchtime (see picture).

Ernie Els with the mighty Springboks.

You don’t want to be the person to jinx your favourite team’s chances so it was fantastic – and a bit of a relief – to return the next day and watch ‘our’ boys beat England on their home turf. Maybe they’ll ask me again now! The Springboks are wonderful sporting ambassadors for our country and it’s going to be a lot of fun cheering them on in the Rugby World Cup next year.

Moving on to this week, we had some meetings in London before we jumped on the plane on Monday evening to fly to Dubai for this week’s DP World Tour Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates. Dubai has a special place in my heart and this is a fantastic tournament obviously with a very strong field. I’m looking forward to a great week and, even though I didn’t get the results I wanted in Asia this past month, I feel confident about the state of my game.

My regular caddie Colin Byrne is not available, so long-time caddie Ricci Roberts is on the bag again this week. So I guess this must be our sixth or seventh comeback! No seriously, it’ll be nice to have him by my side again. He’s like a brother to me and we’ve experienced a lot of great times together, a lot of wins over the years. Hopefully we can add another win to our collective memory bank; that would be perfect.

There’s one more thing to mention before we sign off. On Tuesday 25 November, Els for Autism is hosting a charity fundraising golf day at De Zalze Golf Club, in association with Anahita Mauritius, with special guests Bob Skinstad and Matthew Pearce. The cost is 5000 South African Rand per fourball, which includes a direct charitable donation to the Els for Autism Centre in Jo’burg, green fees, cart fees, gift bag with a bottle of Ernie Els Wine and a shirt from the Ernie Els Collection, halfway house refreshments, buffet dinner and the opportunity to bid for some prizes in the charity auction. Liezl’s family used to farm this land before the golf course was constructed, so De Zalze has a strong personal connection for us. It’s also just five minutes’ drive from the Ernie Els Winery in Stellenbosch. Anyway, there are still some tee times up for grabs, so if you’d like to take part and support Els for Autism in South Africa, please email RachelleR@dezalzegolf.com. The team will make sure you have a great day.